WASHINGTON — Sen. Joseph Lieberman has been recruiting support for legislation that would sanction Damascus
International Airport.

Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said the airport has become the major conduit for Al Qaida fighters
to Iraq as well as Iranian weapons shipments to Lebanon. He based his assertion on briefings from the U.S. military.

On Thursday, the Bush administration released an unclassified version of
a national intelligence estimate that supported Lieberman's allegations
against Syria. But the report said Damascus, despite its increase in support
for militias in Iraq, has cracked down on Al Qaida in wake of a
determination that the Islamic movement threatens Syrian national security.

Lieberman said U.S. intelligence has determined that the lion's share of
Sunni volunteers fly into Damascus International Airport and then proceed
overland to Iraq. He said this makes Damascus the hub of Al Qaida travel in
the Middle East.

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Congressional sources said House and Senate members were discussing
sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The sources
said Congress has been briefed by U.S. military commanders who said Syria
continues to serve as the main conduit for volunteers for the Sunni
insurgency in neighboring Iraq.

"There is a feeling that something has to be done," a senior
congressional staffer said.

Officials said about 80 volunteers per month have been processed and
trained in Syria before being sent to strike Shi'ite and U.S.-led coalition
targets in Iraq. They said most of the volunteers, who meet their handlers
in Syria, were assigned suicide bombing missions in Iraq.

"Syrian President Bashar Al Assad cannot seriously claim that he is
incapable of exercising effective control over the main airport in his
capital city," Lieberman wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Syria is a
police state, with sprawling domestic intelligence and security services.
The notion that Al Qaida recruits are slipping into and through the Damascus
airport unbeknownst to the local Mukhabarat [intelligence agency] is totally
unbelievable."

The proposed legislation, expected to be introduced in Congress in
September, would ban Damascus International Airport to international
carriers. The sources said the sanctions could affect the U.S. activities of
airlines that violate the proposed sanctions.

Alitalia, Air France and British Airways conduct regular flights to
Damascus. U.S. carriers do not fly to Syria.